Championship Planning

[JoshiQ]

Looking for some TNM discussion.

Thought I'd ask how far you guys plan for the World Title of your circuit. Like with the NWF, I pretty much know who the next 2-3 holders of the World Title will be. It can change, but those are the guys I know should be given a lot of attention to. It may not even be for a year or two before they get the title, but I kind of know the future lineage of the title.

There was a time with a different circuit where I knew the next 5-6 people that would hold the strap. Once again, it isn't always set in concrete, but it almost is. This helps me in booking as well without having to set up a strict outline of every single thing that is going to happen in the circuit. Keeps me on track, but lets me improvise here and there as long as it doesn't involve the title changing hands.

[KWOAOA]

You know I'm prob the last guy in the world who should give advice on anything let alone about planning a championship but I'll tell you my crazy ass way of doing things.

How I normally name my first champ is battle royal, the winner becomes the champ, it's some what unusual and is basically luck of the draw when you think about but from then on things don't get much better.

As for during the average running of a circuit and who do I choose who gets a title shot its varies and like I said these are some interesting ways of doing things but I tend to do this just to keep things fresh and unexpected.

For sake of argument we'll say your current champ is Brock Lesnar
1) if Lesnar looses a match to CM Punk then the next match that Lesnar is in will be a title match against CM Punk

2) at times I do look at the overall rankings to see who is ranked where and I will choose from that usually #2 and #3 on the ranking have the best shots at running for a title shot but like I said before at times I do method #1 just to toss things in for a mix.

Or my personal favorite

3) If you have a card setup in like 2 weeks (real time) and you have 4 cards setup up to that point in time, if your champ looses 3 times then you have to create 3 additional cards in which that champ would put his title on the line (basically rule #1 in affect) If he's not the champ come the big show that you had planned then who ever is champ will take place of your former champ just so the guy you had planned would get a shot...
If too confusing then let me sum it up like this:

Brock vs Austin (non title - brock looses)
Brock vs Austin (for title - brock wins)
Brock vs HBK (non title - brock looses)
Brock vs HBK (for title - brock wins)
Brock vs Sin Cera (non title - brock looses)
Brock vs Sin Cera (for title - brock looses)

(insert PPV name) Brock (champ at time) was suppose to face HHH but since Brock lost the title to Sin Cera, Sin will take the place of Brock to face HHH

I know it's kinda crazy but at times its kinda interesting but I'm the guy who lets the computer decide who wins and who looses. Which is prob why I keep things so crazy.

But that's basically what I did in my fed.

[seanh529]

I tried the battle royal once. To crown my first ever champ. It ended up being 1/2 of a tag team guy, and then he ended up quitting with the title. So my circuit wasn't off to the best start.

I usually go with who is hot. In my title history, my last 5 heavyweight champions were AJ Styles, Jun Akiyama, Raven, New Jack, Taz.

I've yet to have a guy win the title twice, and the only thing I can think of is, the angles I was most interested in at the time ended up getting the title involved.

AJ beat Shane Douglas in an old MLW style Young Lions match.
Jun Akiyama won and went on a 13 title defense streak.
Raven got popular and I put the title on him on the biggest show of the year.
New Jack had a feud with CM Punk that was hot and he was my favorite to write for because I was doing crazy interviews with him. I ended up putting the title on him as a big underdog story.

Taz was a guy who never was able to win the title, and then when I realized New Jack was hard to book as a champion, and easier as a challenger, I made the switch.

Now Taz is injured for a long time....so I had no choice but to vacate. I wanted him to tie the record of defense that Akiyama had, and then the two would square off for the title, but the injury ruined it all! Now I have a nice work around since Akiyama and Ahmed Johnson are like my two hottest guys.

[wickedrex1]

I usually hold a tournament of sorts to crown my first Heavyweight Champion. When I brought the HWL back, I actually ranked 1-thru-8 based on their real life totals of championships held. I typically run tournaments unbooked, unless I want something to happen for further planning.

Outside of tournaments, I do take into consideration who people like (that are reading the circuits), but I've started looking at the "Who's Hot" option for my circuit, and breaking them down into three categories. I base my storylines off of that, or whatever the circuit gives me.

[snabbit888]

Mine just really depends on the situation. Sometimes I will get a couple years planned out, who will beat who, etc. Sometimes, it becomes more of a whim based on how hot someone is at the time. For instance, right now, I have no clue who will beat Dusty Rhodes. I have about 4 viable candidates, but not decided on who I like most.

[mdale2k]

I usually plan at least two years in advance for the Main title.

[seanh529]

Another thing I should mention, if I'm looking to change the title, I usually try to put it on someone who is signed for a longer term contract.

I don't want to put the title on someone who has less than 3 cards. (in my fed I sim 5 to 1 do usually do 5 shows in a month.

[rey619]

I plan the next couple of title holders, but it may change due to several possible reasons. The only reason Hamada is the World Champ in TNAW now, is because Nattie quit. Right now, I only know who the next world champ will be. From there on out, I'm really not sure.